Let’s talk about not making stupid laws

The Government has accepted nearly all the recommendations from a taskforce set up to identify rules and regulations that frustrate people or don’t work properly.

The Rules Reduction Taskforce released what became known as the Loopy Rules Report in September last year.

Local Government Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga has announced the Government’s response and says it accepts 72 of 75 “opportunities” to improve the way rules and regulations are developed and implemented.

“Work is underway across Government to address them,” the minister said.

“Customer service was identified as an issue for many New Zealanders seeking building and resource consents… many of these issues require culture change at local level and we will work with councils to address this.”

The taskforce identified issues the public considered most in need of fixing, which included:

make it easier to get building consents

make it easier to get resource consents

sort out what ‘work safety’ means and make the rules clear

reduce the cost of consenting fees

establish a new customer focus in the public sector

stop making loopy rules.

So, a few bits of irony here, the largest one being that the Resource Management Act, its implementation and administration, is killing this country. It may also have something to do with the housing crisis.

National was going to deliver a revised RMA this term but were castrated by a poorly run Northland campaign by Joyce and de Jeux allowing National’s slim majority to get knobbled to the point where RMA reform now relies on Peter Dunne. Dunne has gone all individual and is refusing to assist.

So now we are enduring a period of law-making where poor people in Auckland can get paid up to $5000 to leave Auckland. It’s a stellar scheme that has been taken up by one person so far. Or, if there are more, the government has been too embarrassed to reveal the current number.

So now we’re in the situation where we’ve received a report that asked people what they most need changed about the way government implements and administers laws, and most of the recommendations essentially say: fix the problems around the Resource Management Act.

National are at a stalemate because they can’t rely on their coalition partners, and they have no power to compel local government to do anything at all unless… they make more laws.

– Newshub

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